1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a catheter with an aorta-occluding balloon, and more particularly to such a catheter as adapted for use for example in a surgical operation in which an aorta portion having an aneurism extending to an aortic arch is resected and replaced with a length of artificial blood vessel, or for use in the angiotomy in which the large blood vessels such as aorta or vena cava are subjected to surgical operation, or for use in the cardiotomy performed for surgical treatment of an acquired or congenital heart disease.
2. Prior Art
The science of cardiovascular surgery has recently made a marked advance so that nowadays the cardiotomy and angiotomy which are very difficult and has been regarded as almost impossible can often be performed. In a case wherein for example the aneurism in an aorta is surgically treated, a patient's death caused by the stopping of blood circulation must be avoided. Therefore, the operated vessel portion should be by-passed to maintain the blood flow through his or her whole body, for the purpose of life support. Such by-pass tubes are generally called the "blood-transporting tubes", and various types have been proposed (as disclosed for instance in the Japanese Patent Publication Hei. 2-39255).
Those prior art blood-transporting tubes are used when the large blood vessels are surgically treated not only in the cardiotomy but also in the implantation of artificial blood vessels. The former operation is for the congenital cardiopathy such as the valvular disease, or for the acquired heart diseases such as myocardial infarct and the ischemic cardiopathy which is typically a heart attack. The latter operation is conducted to resect and replace an aneurism portion of blood vessel with a length of artificial blood vessel. It is however to be noted that, when such a prior art blood-transporting tube is employed, the blood vessel portions adjacent to the operated region must be clamped by means of forceps or the like. If a blood vessel which has calcified due to arteriosclerosis or the like disease is clamped, then the intima of clamped portion will be injured. In another case wherein the aorta is clamped, the blood flow through the coronary artery will be stopped to unintentionally cause myocardial infarct or other heart disease.
The Japanese Patent Laying-Open Gazette Sho. 52-128681 discloses a proposal, which was made to resolve the above-described problems inherent in the prior art blood-transporting tubes. According to this proposal, a T-shaped catheter is provided which comprises balloons formed adjacent to the ends of thin lumens. The balloons occlude the body passage, for example a blood vessel, in such a state that it is possible to confine the stopping of the blood to the heart muscle to the small area where the by-pass is being made and for a short period of time. However, those balloons in the T-shaped catheter function in almost the same manner as forceps or clamps. This catheter can avoid the injury of the calcified blood vessels, though the other problem of the undesirable interception of blood flow to the coronary artery still remains unresolved, forcing the operation to be quickly finished in a short time.